Epilogue
It had been fifteen years since his daughter was born.
Glancing out of the window to his left, Uchiha Itachi watched the birds flying high up in the cloudless blue sky, cawing loudly as they did so. It was a beautiful day and they'd had this type of weather for the past few weeks, but there was something different about today. And a shinobi never ignored his gut instinct. Which was why he was carrying more weaponry than usual, though obviously kept it hidden just in case he worried the children sitting before him.
For a year now, Itachi had been teaching at The Academy after stepping down from being Hokage. He had personally trained Uzumaki Naruto, preparing him for the biggest challenge of his life. Being Hokage was no walk in the park, after all. And finally, after fourteen years of sitting behind that desk, Itachi decided that Naruto was ready.
It felt good to step back. Don't get him wrong because it had been strange at first and he still had to attend most council meetings (if not all of them), but it was definitely a good thing. Now, Itachi had more time to spend with his family. As much as his wife had smiled and waved him off, saying that his busy schedule was fine, he knew different. He could read those apple green eyes better than anyone. Sakura may have calmed down over the years and matured wonderfully with motherhood, but he could still read her like she was an open book.
Speaking of his wife, Sakura was due back soon. She had been placed on a temporary team to complete a mission. The mission was simple and all the team had to do was escort a diplomat out of Fire Country, where he would be met by his own shinobi, but it was because of who was on that team that Sakura had to join them. Well, more like their rank, since they were all genin. No, Sakura was not a sensei, they had just needed somebody to assist and watch over them. They had needed somebody they knew would be capable of protecting them. The team had been gone for over a week now, though Itachi was not worried. Naruto had already explained to them that they would have to wait for a couple of days at the meeting point. Not only that, but since the diplomat was a civilian, they had to travel on foot.
Spending the week alone with his daughter was both nice and terrifying. Terrifying because Sakura's mood swings had nothing on Hikari's. One moment they could be sitting peacefully side by side, drinking tea and then the next, she could be smashing the cup and swinging for him. Not that Hikari had ever dared to raise her hand to him, but she did enjoy ambushing her father both during training and when he was least expecting it.
The first time it happened, Itachi had been amused by her actions and had even taunted her a little, slipping in a teasing remark here and there about how she was a hundred years away from ever catching up to him. It riled her up, he'd realised a moment too late. Like her mother's, Hikari's anger was not to be underestimated. Unfortunately for him at that time, Sakura had also taught their daughter how to enhance her strength. The training grounds had been completely obliterated. Since then, Hikari enjoyed ambushing her father and challenging him, demanding that they sparred until she surpassed him.
He loved his daughter – absolutely adored her – but sometimes, Itachi wished that she was more like himself rather than Sakura. As much as he loved his wife and all of her terrible mood swings, he couldn't have been happier the moment she began calming down, the moment she learned how to rein them all in. And now his daughter was acting the same way.
With his back to the others, Itachi allowed a small smirk to pull at his lips. Oh well. At least he'd gotten a good ten years worth of peace. Maybe Hikari would learn to mask her emotions quicker than her mother had? He could only hope.
At fifteen years of age, their daughter was at that 'sensitive' age – those were Sakura's words and not his own. The smallest of comments would set her off and she could be incredibly sensitive to the smallest of things. For example, the other week, Sasuke had taken a sip out of her glass and she threw a tantrum over it. For days she absolutely refused to speak or even look at her uncle, saying that he'd contaminated her glass with his germs.
No, there was no illness. No OCD or anything of the sort. Uchiha Hikari was simply the type of girl who needed clean things. She had her own set of cutlery, glasses and dishes. A case for her toothbrush and her own separate toothpaste. It seemed a little extreme and completely unprofessional of a shinobi, but that was just the way their daughter was, so Itachi and Sakura respected her wishes and accepted her, going out of their way to make her comfortable. It was more like they had no choice but to, actually. One time, Sakura had told her daughter to get over her obsession with everything being sparkling clean and to get her point across, Hikari refused to eat or drink. The only things she drank during that time were bottles of water.
At the age of nine (only a year older than himself when he had), his daughter had made him incredibly proud by activating her Sharingan. She had worked hard for it, training every single day to make herself stronger, pushing herself to her limits and beyond. Many times, Itachi or Sakura had had to carry Hikari home after she had passed out from exhaustion in one of the training grounds. Her determination was inspiring, however. As was her strength. And Itachi couldn't have asked for a greater child. She worked hard in everything she did.
There had been no more children after Hikari, meaning she was an only child. It wasn't because they didn't want more children, because once Hikari graduated from The Academy, Sakura had asked him if they could try for a baby. It just didn't happen for them. Like Shee had warned them all those years ago at the summit: Sakura was unable to conceive once more.
Hikari truly was their miracle baby.
"Rokudaime-sama?"
Turning to face the class, Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"Why did you let Naruto-sama take over?"
The child was only young – in their first year of The Academy, in fact. Her brown eyes were wide with innocence and the blush on her freckled cheeks was childish. The girls of the class always blushed around him, which was rather unnerving. They had to be only six to eight years old. Surely they didn't develop crushes so young? Then again, his wife had had a huge crush on his own brother at that age.
"You have asked this question many times, Aki-chan." Itachi held back a sigh, but answered anyway, "Back when I was first selected to become Hokage, the village was in a dire state. Our previous Hokage, Tsunade-sama, was terminally ill at the time and wanted to make sure she wasn't leaving the village without a capable leader. In order to protect our village and to allow her a peaceful death, I promised to take over, but only until Naruto-kun was ready."
"But why did it take so long?" another child whined. "My mom said he's been talking about being Hokage since he was our age!"
"Naruto-kun was very childish and impulsive." In some ways, he still was. "Not only that, but he knew next to nothing about how to run a village as large as Konoha. It was too risky."
"But you–"
Already knowing where this conversation was turning, for it was the same every single time, Itachi sighed and cut Aki off, "You are supposed to be studying the henge jutsu."
In an instant, they all got back to working.
In two days' time, the village would be hosting it's second all out brawl festival.
Don't even get him started.
Itachi had tried to talk Naruto out of it, had tried to warn him that it would cause damage to the village. Had he listened? Of course not. No. He merely went onto telling them all about the time Tsunade hosted such an event and how many shinobi took part in it. Even the Godaime Kazekage competed. Sure, it would be a great way of getting everybody socialising and whatnot, but did they really have to do this?
Apparently, Itachi was the only one to be feeling such a way. The others were all but bouncing off the walls, listing off all of their techniques and the ways they were going to defeat one another. Sadly, even his daughter was amongst that side. The moment she'd heard about the event, she had approached him and said with blank features and an empty voice, "I'm coming for your crystal first."
Yes, he had taught his daughter well.
In battle or wherever professionalism was necessary, Hikari could guard her emotions and mask her features perfectly. Almost too perfectly. But outside of those things, like her mother had, she struggled to remain blank. But that was okay, in Itachi's eyes. He wanted to see her emotions, just like he'd enjoyed seeing Sakura's. Their emotions were raw, showing him the women they were on the inside.
Woman.
His daughter was not a woman and in his eyes, would never be one. She would always be a girl, though not in a condescending way.
In all honesty, despite his previous thoughts, Itachi couldn't wait for his daughter's attempt to take his crystal. The event was still childish in his personal opinion and it was a waste of shinobi time and energy, but he couldn't deny that he was looking forward to battling his daughter. Hikari had some powerful jutsu up her sleeve. It would be ridiculous if she didn't considering who her family were.
She had her father's intellect and ability to naturally pick everything up. She had her mother's perfect chakra control and monstrous strength. She was taught genjutsu by the best genjutsu user alive – Shisui. And he taught her only the best genjutsu he knew, making her incredibly dangerous to her opponents. As though that didn't make her powerful enough, just to add to the mix, she was greatly skilled in the shadow clone jutsu, but not just that. Her first major jutsu (a-ranked and above), the first one she ever learned, was Chidori. Add the natural Uchiha speed and her Sharingan to the mix and you had one extremely lethal kunoichi, one you did not want to piss off.
But like he'd been saying earlier: his daughter wasn't perfect. Lately, it was obvious that something had been bothering her, as she continuously lost her temper at the smallest of things. Hikari's thoughts were scattered and more often than not, Itachi found himself needing to repeat what had been said because she was lost in her thoughts. At his wife's insistence, however, he was allowing Hikari the time to come to him with her problem.
Apparently, it would do no good to push his daughter into telling him what was wrong. So even though it was infuriating and painful watching her internal struggle, Itachi decided to give her that time. Sakura could see the struggle just as greatly as he could, she was just as torn on the inside as he was.
The love Sakura felt for Hikari was magnificent, in his eyes. Whenever they spoke of Hikari, whenever they spoke to her or merely caught sight of her, Itachi always discreetly looked to Sakura, wanting to catch the warmth in her eyes. Unconditional love. And the love was returned just as strongly.
They were best friends and Itachi couldn't be happier with the relationship between mother and daughter. Don't get him wrong, because Sakura could lay down the law and discipline Hikari without batting an eyelash, but they were also friends. If their daughter was suffering, if she was in need of advice or simply wanted to gossip, then Sakura was there. It didn't matter to her if it was the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. If Hikari needed her mother, then Sakura would know and she would be there.
"Hokage-sama!"
Despite stepping down almost a year ago now, the villagers still called him that title.
His rude interruption of Itachi's lesson was forgotten about in a split second and sensing the disturbance, the Uchiha stood up, nodding once to the chunin who had burst into his classroom.
"Are there any teams?"
The chunin nodded once, not surprised in the least when the students wordlessly stood up in an orderly line, allowing their sensei to count them. "Yes, Hokage-sama. Three teams are holding them back. Team Six, Four and Lee."
The mentioning of his daughter's team almost had Itachi pausing. Almost. He knew his daughter too well to underestimate her. Sure, she wasn't up to his level just yet, but she was definitely strong and was able to hold her own. Just like her mother, Hikari had a fiery determination to protect their village and her loved ones. If they were put in danger nothing would stop her from protecting them, from using every last drop of chakra in her reserves.
His own reserves of chakra weren't too great – that included his stamina. It never had been, really. Itachi had found ways to preserve his chakra, to make sure he was never weakened considerably or enough to put his life in danger. However, over the years, none of those techniques had been necessary because there hadn't been any danger for him to deal with. All threats were taken care of by his shinobi. Not only that, but things had been quiet and peaceful. That did not mean he was weakened, though.
"How many?"
"I don't have an exact number," the chunin muttered, looking ashamed of himself. "There are several platoons and they're all headed in this direction."
To find him. The words weren't said because they weren't needed to be said. Many attempts had been made on his life by rogue-nin, but never by such a great number of them. Again, his shinobi always dealt with them without his help. As Hokage, it was imperative that he be protected even though the protection was never needed.
But now the children's lives were in danger.
As their Rokudaime Hokage, he would step up and protect them.
"Take them to the shelters," Itachi ordered, turning to face the opened window. It was too nice a day to leave them shut. "I will join the teams."
"But, Hokage-sama, you–"
"Don't underestimate Rokudaime-sama!" the same childish voice from earlier snapped. "He'll beat their asses without lifting a finger!"
As always, Aki came to his defence and overexaggerated his strength, but Itachi found it rather endearing. It was nice to have such strong support from the younger generations.
"Hell yeah!" another child exclaimed.
However, their language was foul. Not all of his students cursed, but a few of them did and he disliked it greatly. They only swore when they were agitated or excited and couldn't control it. Did that really make it any better, though? Well, at least they listened to him and stopped swearing in every sentence.
Instead of showing any response to the children who were now talking amongst one another, Itachi levelled the chunin standing opposite him with an unwavering stare. "You will take the children to the shelter and you will protect them."
A pause. A small amount of credit was due, for the chunin tried his best to withstand Itachi's intimidating stare, but the second that stare hardened into a glare, he nodded and swallowed hard, motioning for the students to follow him.
Itachi was out of The Academy not even a second later.
When he arrived, Itachi found that the chunin had been right: teams Six, Four and Lee were holding back the platoons with everything they had.
It almost made him smirk as he caught sight of his daughter, as he saw her flickering around the area, taunting her enemies as she reappeared in different poses and positions. They were growing agitated with her and unnerved, allowing themselves to get riled up. That was one of his daughter's greatest weapons: she was an expert in pissing people off, which meant they attacked without thinking. Doing such a thing lowered their guards and stopped any rational thought, leaving them open and easy to take down.
Not far from her side was her sensei, who was fighting just as hard. Something Itachi truly appreciated about his daughter's sensei? He never underestimated anybody. If anything, he was more likely to overestimate them, but that was fine by Itachi – to an extent. The man pushed Hikari way beyond her limits, never giving her a breather or allowing her five minutes to relax. No, he pushed her just as hard as he himself had been pushed, even though it wasn't entirely necessary due to her being a prodigy. Who was the man who became her sensei? None other than Rock Lee.
It was safe to say that Sakura had been delighted and while Itachi had had his doubts in the beginning, wondering if Rock Lee would be capable of teaching Hikari anything useful… Well, he no longer had those doubts. He was one of the best at taijutsu, boosting that area of skills for his daughter and he made her faster, so much faster, than she ever was naturally. However…
Itachi's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the battles.
His daughter may have inherited her mother's chakra control, but she took after him in the stamina and reserves department. Like his, Hikari's stamina was not great and while she had an admirable amount of chakra, it was not a great amount. Noticing the fatigue beginning to show in his daughter's red and black eyes, Itachi intervened, knocking a few of the rogue-nin away from her and taking them on himself. There was a pause in the battle when the others noticed his entrance, but it didn't last long.
The rogue-nin were a lot more powerful than he'd thought they would be, so Itachi was quick to dispatch of them, incinerating their bodies with Amaterasu. And once he was done, he discreetly watched his daughter's battle, watched how she easily countered the water jutsu with a fire jutsu.
His daughter was such a magnificent creature.
She looked a little like his own mother, though her dark hair was wilder, like Sakura's had been when she was a genin, when it was long. She didn't wear her forehead protector like Sakura had, though. No, she had it around her waist, just as Yamanaka Ino had. As well as this, she also wore a short, dark skirt and heeled boots that reached her thighs. Oh, he hadn't approved of her outfit in the slightest. Itachi would rather his daughter dressed respectfully, but… Well, he may be her father, but he refused to control everything in her life. If Hikari wanted to dress that way, then so be it. If she wanted to train with Rock Lee, or Shisui or even Sasuke, then she could. There was a healthy amount of control over his daughter's life, and then there was an extreme amount. He refused to become the overprotective, overbearing father that she would eventually grow to despise.
He refused to allow her to feel the same way he had while growing up.
All thoughts stopped as one of the rogue-nin appeared behind her, raising his katana.
Much to their surprise, however, just as she turned and the katana was about to slam into Hikari's chest, a set of feet landed on it delicately. They didn't even need to look to see who it was because the moment the katana hit the ground, it snapped in half and the ground was quaking. Thankfully it didn't rupture or split completely. Of course, his wife would be way too cautious about causing such damage with their daughter so close.
"Don't even think about laying your filthy hands on my daughter," Sakura spat through clenched teeth a second before her fist was flying forward much too fast for the enemy to see. "Shannaro!"
Hikari smirked proudly and followed her mother's movements, using her enhanced strength to deal with the rest of the rogue-nin. He himself also had a proud smirk on his lips. His wife was home and not only was she home, but she was in her protective mother mode. It fortunately didn't take all that long for the platoons to be dealt with and once they were, Sakura settled a serious glare on Hikari just as Itachi made his way over to them.
"What have I told you about using your chakra recklessly?" demanded Sakura, her eyes narrowing. "Look at you, Hikari. You're shaking." The anger left her as she raised her hand, gently cupping Hikari's delicate face. "How are your reserves?"
Dark green eyes dropped to the ground in defeat. "Close to empty."
Sakura sighed as she set about healing the small amount of damage dealt to their daughter. It only took a couple of minutes, if that. "You've weakened yourself, Hikari," she told her quietly. "Wasting your chakra like that made you sluggish and if I hadn't arrived when I had…" Pain flitted across her face. "He was aiming for your heart. You couldn't block it and–"
"I was here, Sakura," Itachi cut her off calmly, placing his hand on his wife's shoulder. "I would not allow anything to happen to our daughter."
"I know, I know." She sighed again. "It's just… Seeing that. My heart's still racing and look!" She raised her hands to them. "I'm shaking, too!"
Of course she was, Itachi inwardly sighed. The thought of anything happening to their miracle baby petrified Sakura, which was why she fought so hard to help Hikari master perfecting her chakra control, which was why she taught their daughter how to heal with her chakra. And Itachi had to admit that seeing that katana being aimed straight for their daughter had scared him, also.
Hikari wouldn't have blocked or dodged it in time. He wouldn't have made it in time. Rock Lee and the others had been too absorbed in their own battles, in protecting The Academy and the children.
If it hadn't been for Sakura's sudden arrival, they could have lost their miracle child.
Sakura suddenly pulled Hikari against her, releasing a shaky breath as she slowly managed to calm herself. Feeling her daughter, knowing that she was in her arms and safe, soothed her greatly and it comforted her, too, when Hikari wrapped her arms around her in return, holding her just as tightly.
"I'm sorry," whispered Hikari.
She shook her head quickly. "Just please don't be so reckless, Hikari. You mean more to me than my own life. Nothing could ever change that."
Something seemed to flash in their daughter's eyes at her words, making Itachi frown slightly. "Is something wrong, Hikari?"
She froze and those dark green eyes snapped up to his, widening. "I…"
There was that internal struggle again. He made sure to soften his voice, so that nobody other than the two women before him could hear him. "Would you like some tea?"
Hikari smiled weakly and nodded, still not releasing her mother. That was how her father always dealt with things, with a nice cup of tea. If they needed to talk about something serious, about something personal, they did it over tea. If her mother needed calming down, he offered her tea. It always went down to tea with him and it was something that never failed to amuse her.
Only ten minutes later and they were sitting together at the table in their home. They'd lived there since Hikari was two years old, only moving out of their one bedroom apartment once the village was in a more stable position and everybody in the village had homes. It was a beautiful home, mostly due to Sakura's hard work on decorating it just so. Every room was different, yet somewhat traditional, making it peaceful and calming and comforting. It truly felt like home thanks to his wife's gentle touch.
As Sakura went about making the tea, Itachi regarded his daughter silently, but she gave nothing away. Why was Hikari looking as though she was about to go into battle with them? Had he or Sakura done something to upset her? Was she about to confront them?
Only when Sakura set three cups of hot tea down onto the table did Hikari finally speak up. She held onto her cup with both hands, yet never broke eye contact with them for a second. Whatever she had to say, was obviously serious, Itachi realised with building dread. He hoped it wasn't anything too serious.
"I wasn't planning on telling you both today," Hikari began quietly and very faintly, her eyebrows began to knit together. "But… That katana… If it had hit me, I know I would have never gotten the chance to tell either of you."
"Don't say that," chided Sakura, her voice just as quiet.
"But it's the truth, Sakura," Itachi argued and his eyes didn't leave Hikari's. "What is it that you want to tell us, Hikari?"
She swallowed hard and her calm, blank expression cracked. A second later and Hikari's eyes were dropping to the cup in front of her, torturing her parents when they saw the faint shaking of her hands. Why was she scared? Why was she so worried?
"I…" Hikari shut her eyes, willing the twisting feeling of her stomach to go away. "I like girls."
Itachi deadpanned, immediately catching on.
Sakura frowned softly and tilted her head to the side. "You mean as friends?"
Their daughter swallowed hard and shook her head, once more opening her eyes to see their expressions. "I like boys, but I like girls, too."
"Oh…" Sakura gasped, suddenly understanding. "You mean you're bisexual?"
"Yeah…"
Itachi took a deep breath before nodding once. "Okay."
"Okay? That's it?"
Sakura frowned up at her husband, who was sitting by her side. "What else are we supposed to say?"
"You…" Hikari frowned in confusion. "You accept it? Me?"
"Of course we do." He smiled down at her. "Your sexual orientation does not change how we view you, Hikari."
"You're our daughter. Our little miracle baby." She laughed warmly, taking her hand from across the table. "No matter what you do or who you fall in love with, we'll always love you!"
"…Oh."
Itachi's smiled warmed, easily noticing that Hikari was overwhelmed by their acceptance. Had she really been so worried about telling them? "We noticed your internal struggle, Hikari, we just couldn't understand what your were struggling with, so decided to give you the time you needed to come to us."
She nodded slowly, giving them a small smile. "Thank you."
"Now," Sakura stood up and stretched, "I'm going to start dinner."
"I'll help," Hikari offered, following her mother.
"Back when I was still a genin, I remember our Godaime Hokage, Tsunade-baa-can, hosting an event just like this one. I remember fighting so hard to gain as many crystals as I possibly could!" He was grinning down at the gathered crowd below his Hokage Tower, unable to hide his excitement. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people gathered! "And I wanted to bring back the event, even if it's only just this one time, for one very simple reason.
"It brought us all together. Sure, we were fighting, but that's how most of us communicate. I know it's how I communicate with my former team! And just seeing everybody getting involved, even people from different villages… It made me feel like I was a part of something great. It made me feel like I was finally a part of something that involved pretty much the entire village!" He then laughed, looking incredibly proud of himself. "That and it sure was fun beating up my former sensei, Hatake Kakashi."
From behind him, said shinobi sighed, mumbling under his breath that that wasn't what happened.
"So I want to wish all of you who are participating good luck! Those who've gained the most crystals will be put through to the next stage, which will be a tournament. Like Tsunade-baa-chan's prize: the winner gets to create one rule that we all have to follow it!"
Many eyes gleamed with determination.
"Let the all out brawl," Naruto smirked wickedly down at his villagers, "begin!"
It was about time!
Hikari watched as her mother exchanged a single glance with her lifelong rival, Yamanaka Ino, before they were both charging at one another, jumping straight into battle with huge grins on their faces.
"It's about time we had a rematch, don't you think, Forehead?"
"Bring it on, Ino-Pig!"
Her uncle Sasuke immediately sought out Kakashi.
As for herself…
She had somewhat patiently followed her father in the direction of the training grounds. To battle with him in the middle of the village would no doubt cause way too much destruction and he wouldn't focus fully on their battle, meaning it wouldn't be fair. She wanted to beat him when he was at his best, when he seemed so unbeatable and ridiculously powerful. That was all that mattered to her. Not some stupid new rule thing, but surpassing her father. He was so powerful that it was insane and she would do anything to earn his respect, to surpass him.
And as they came to a stop, standing with a fairly large amount of distance between them both, Hikari arrogantly placed a hand on her hip and gave him her most determined expression, yet one that also screamed she wasn't intimidated in the least. It reminded him so much of Sakura.
"You ready, Father?"
Itachi returned Hikari's smirk and shot forward to meet her halfway, drawing back his fist when she did.
THE END
A/N – It is definitely the end now! People kept asking for an epilogue or a sequel, but honestly, I'm done with this story. I enjoyed writing it and I enjoyed the feedback (except for those who always complained about Sakura being too emotional). However, please keep in mind that I'm experimenting. I like to try new things with my favourite characters and you also have to remember that Sakura is emotional. Perhaps not to the extent that I made her in this story, but she also suffered quite a few losses in this story, whereas she never really lost anyone who meant a great deal to her in the anime/manga - that I can remember, anyway.
This was only written in like ten minutes, so please excuse any errors.
